The Allahabad High Court refused to grant bail to a person alleged of clandestine removal of finished goods without issuance of any invoice, without payment of any applicable duties.
The applicant, Chhaya Devi is the proprietor of the firm while business of the firm is being managed by the Manager and is in effective control of the manager. The applicant cannot be made vicariously liable. Only duty which was payable was about Rs.3.85 crore. If the figure of Rs.9.39 crore and Rs.43.10 crore are removed, then, out of the alleged figure Rs.56.43 crore, only a duty of about Rs.3.85 crores are due to be payable.
It was alleged that before arresting the applicant no proper assessment of the duty was made and no opportunity of hearing was given to the applicant, during investigation whether the alleged duty was due on her part or not. The applicant was arrested on January 19, 2021 on the basis of order passed by Principal Commissioner, CGST, Noida. The applicant had always been cooperating with the investigation and enquiry of the case and never tried to abscond.
On the other hand the department opposed the contentions raised on behalf of learned counsel for the applicant and contended that proper investigation and enquiry was made by the officials of the GST Department and after assessment the complaint was filed before the Court of Special Chief Judicial Magistrate, Meerut. All the relevant provisions of CGST Act, 2017 were complied with. The alleged offence is economic offence. Keeping in view the gravity of the offence and also the heavy loss to the Government Exchequer prayed to reject the bail of the applicant.
The single judge bench of Justice Subhash Chand noted that as the evasion of the duty is more than Rs.5 crores, therefore, the offence alleged against the applicant is cognizable and non- bailable.
The court while rejecting the bail application held that The offence alleged against the applicant is economic offence in which the evasion of duty is made against the applicant. Although the offence is punishable with imprisonment of five years yet the evasion of huge amounts of duty is a great loss to the Government Exchequer. As such the alleged offence is economic.
Subscribe Taxscan Premium to view the JudgmentSupport our journalism by subscribing to Taxscan AdFree. We welcome your comments at info@taxscan.in
